Sophie in Cambodia - 7/29/2009 - Day 6

Oliver picked me up at 6am and headed to Hagar On-Time. Already it is very hot. There are a few garment factories in the area, and small pickup trucks loaded with women workers pass us on the dusty road. The street is busting with activities early in the morning. On the sidewalk, there are many street vendors selling many different kinds of food.

Hagar starts each day with 30 minutes of devotion. Today, Oliver introduced me and invited me to lead prayer and devotions. I am learning to totally rely on Holy Spirit when this kind of thing happened. It has happened quite often since I arrived. There are 50 permanent and 2 temperately staff members. I shared my family’s testimony and my experience and hardships growing up in Taiwan and the USA and closed up with a prayer. Olive told me that they seem to like me because of the candies I brought on Friday.

During lunch, I grabbed some food and joined the ladies at its lunchroom. Cambodia culture is very similar to Chinese as we often share food with each other. As I have mentioned, there are seven deaf-mute women working for Hagar. Using hand gestures, they were the noisiest women at the table!

In the afternoon, Sopeap took me around town on her scooter checking out different suppliers. Scooters are one of the major forms of transportation in PP. After 3 hours riding on that scooter, boy I felt the saddle soreness.

Pastor John and Anne are currently taking care of a 10 week old Cambodia baby girl with a cleft lip. They know her mother from one of the slum communities. She has 5 other children and no means to care for her sixth one. They tried to provide baby formula but noticed that the baby was not gaining weight. They suspect the mother is selling the formula to get money. The baby was finally admitted to the hospital weighing less than 3 kilograms unconscious. They prayed over for the baby day and night. By God’s grace, she made it through and was released from the hospital. However, the mother called and expressed the inability to care for her. Pastor John and Anne agree to care for her until she received the operation.

Despite the needs, I see God’s love in this place. It is not easy to see and experience so much poverty, hurt and injustice. Yet, God is merciful for the ones who call out to Him. As I held on to those tiny fingers, I couldn’t help to be in awe of how amazing our God is. Every little part of our body is intricately designed so we may live. Despite all of our sins, God wants us to be free, victorious and blessed. Are we not then responsible to obey our father’s calling and be a blessing to others?